Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 3, 2025
The man in the "crow's nest," as they call the cask fixed up at the mast-head, was looking anxiously out for whales, and the crew were idling about the deck. Tom Lokins was seated on the windlass smoking his pipe, and I was sitting beside him on an empty cask, sharpening a blubber-knife. "Tom," said I, "what like is a whale?" "Why, it's like nothin' but itself," replied Tom, looking puzzled.
It was a dead calm, and one of those intensely dark, hot nights, that cause sailors to feel uneasy, they scarce know why. I began to feel so uncomfortable at last, listening to the horrible tales which Tom Lokins was relating to the men, that I slipt away from them with the intention of going on deck.
"Aye, Mother, He has preserved my life in the midst of many dangers," said I, "for which I am most thankful." There was a short silence after this, during which my mother and I gazed earnestly at each other, and Tom Lokins smoked his pipe and stared at the fire. "Robert, how big is a whale?" enquired my mother suddenly.
"D'ye know, lads, I've been thinkin' " "No, have ye?" cried one of the men, interrupting him with a look of pretended surprise. "Well now, I do think, messmates, that we should ax the mate to make a note o' that in the log, for it's not often that Tom Lokins takes to thinkin'." There was a laugh at this, but Tom, turning with a look of contempt to the man who interrupted him, replied
"But, I say, how much is that?" enquired Tom Lokins.
We at last got within a few feet of the monster, and the captain suddenly gave the word, "Stand up." This was to our harpooner, Tom Lokins, who jumped up on the instant, and buried two harpoons deep in the blubber. "Stern all!" was the next word, and we backed off with all our might.
"Don't you know?" said Tom Lokins, "why, it's a glass that makes little things seem big, when ye look through it. I've heerd that say beasts that are so uncommon small you that can't see them at all are made to come into sight and look quite big by means o' this glass. But I can't myself say that it's true." "But I can," said Fred, "for I have seen it with my own eyes.
Well, after a good while, I made bold to ask the young doctor what he had found out. "'I've found, said he, 'that the greenness of these seas is in truth caused by uncountable numbers of medusae " "Ha! that's the word," shouted Tom Lokins, "Medoosy, that's wot the captain calls 'em. Heave ahead, Fred."
Another will take you half a day, and perhaps you may lose him after all. The whale we were now after at last took to showing fight. He made two or three runs at the boat, but the mate, who was in command, pricked him off with the lance cleverly. At last we gave him a severe wound, and immediately he dived. "That was into his life," remarked Tom Lokins, as we sat waiting for him to come up again.
When we were within a few yards of the fish, which was going slowly through the water, all ignorant of the terrible foes who were pursuing him, Tom Lokins raised the harpoon high above his head, and darted it deep into its fat side just behind the left fin, and next moment the boat ran aground on the whale's back.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking